mnioisBisTaMCUsmW 


IFn  nibemoriain. 


P  H  I  LO   CARPENTER. 


PHILO    CARPENTER. 


MEMORIAL    SKETCH 


OF 


PHILO  CARPENTER, 

February  27,  180^ — August  7,  /c 


Read  before  the  Chica(-.o  Historical  Society,  July  17,  1888. 


BY 

Rev.  henry   L.   HAMMOND. 


CHICAGO: 

FERGUS    PRINTING    COMPANY. 
1888. 


>. 


PHILO    CARPENTER. 


PERSONAL  acquaintance  of  thirty  years,  official  con- 
nection in  the  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  sketches 
of  his  life  in  the  "Leading  Men  of  Chicago,"  "United- 
States  Biographical  Dictionary  of  Eminent  and  Self-Made 
Men,"  "Records  of  Chicago  Presbytery,"  church -records, 
and  conferences  with  his  children  and  friends,  are  the 
sources  of  my  information.  I  have  not  hesitated  to  appro- 
priate whatever  I  have  found  that  appeared  essential  to 
the  completeness  of  this  Memorial.  Accuracy  and  fulness 
have  been  sought  rather  than  originality. 


A  good  and  wise  man  is  a  blessing  to  his  generation. 
But  he  dies  and  the  generation  passes  away.  Apparently 
the  blessing  dies  with  him.  Not  so.  The  world  is  better 
for  his  life.  Not  Chicago  only,  but  every  part  of  the  land 
which  Chicago  influences  is  other  than  it  would  have  been 
but  for  the  work  of  Philo  Carpenter;  and  that  though  not 
one  word  more  should  ever  be  written  of  him,  though  no 
portrait  or  bust  should  show  us  how  he  looked,  and  no 
stone  should  tell  us  where  he  sleeps.  Yet  a  true  historical 
sketch  of  the  man  will  be  welcomed  by  coming  genera- 
tions, and  this  Society  would  not  be  faithful  to  its  mission 
if  it  did  not  seek  to  perserve  for  them  such  a  memorial. 

It  is  natural  to  ask  first  after  a  man's  antecedents,  and 
trace  his  lineage.     It  is  pleasant  to  note  that  Philo  Car- 


6  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

penter  came  from  New  England,  and  from  the  Berkshire 
Hills  of  New  England;  and  looking  further  back,  that  the 
line  runs  among  the  heroes  and  patriots  of  the  last  cen- 
tury. Both  his  grandfathers  were  in  the  army  of  the 
Revolution.  Nathaniel  Carpenter  resigned  a  captaincy  in 
his  majesty's  service  and  raised  a  company  for  the  Con- 
tinental army,  fought  through  the  war  and  at  its  close 
was  a  major  in  command  of  West  Point.  An  earlier 
ancestor  was  William  Carpenter,  a  pilgrim  who  came  from 
Southampton,  England  to  Weymouth,  Mass.,  in  1635,  in 
the  ship  Bcvis* 

In  1787,  the  family  came  to  western  Massachusetts  then 
a  wilderness,  where  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in 
the  town  of  Savoy,  Feb.  27,  1805,  the  fifth  of  eight  child- 
ren of  Abel  Carpenter.  One  only  of  the  eight  is  still 
living,  Mrs.  Emily  C.  Bridges  of  Oak  Park,  111.,  who  is 
with  us  this  evening.  Philo  lived  on  the  farm  with  his 
father  till  he  was  of  age.  He  received  little  money  from 
his  parents,  but  did  receive  those  greater  gifts,  good  blood, 
a  good  constitution,  a  good  common -school  education — 
supplemented  by  a  few  terms  at  the  academy  at  South 
Adams — and  habits  of  morality,  industry,  and  economy. 
He  made  two  trips  as  a  commercial  traveler  as  far  south 
as  Richmond,  Va.  But  having  had  his  thoughts  turned 
toward  medical  studies  during  his  stay  at  South  Adams, 
he  went  to  Troy,  New  York,  and  entered  the  drug-store 
of  Amatus  Robbins,  where,  in  connection  with  a  clerkship, 
he  continued  his  studies,  and  at  length  gained  a  half- 
interest  in  the  business.  He  was  married  there  in  May, 
1830,  to  Sarah  Forbes  Bridges,  but  she  died  the  following 
November. 

It  was  at  Troy  that  young  Carpenter  experienced  that 

*  Rev.  Edward  Hildreth,  son-in-law  of  Dea.  Carpenter  writes:  "I  myself 
found  at  Plymouth  an  original  appraisal,  dated  1664,  one  of  the  items  being  a 
pair  of  leather  breeches,  with  name        William  Carpenter  attached. " 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  7 

great  change  which  gives  permanence  to  all  the  natural 
virtues  and  fixes  the  character  on  the  bed-rock  of  Christ- 
ian principle.  In  March,  1830,  he  joined  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church,  then  under  the  pastoral  care  of  Rev.  Dr. 
Nathan  S.  S.  Beman.  As  the  record  shows  that  thirty-six 
other  persons  joined  at  the  same  time,  there  must  have 
been  a  revival  then.  Perhaps  it  was  in  connection  with 
the  labors  of  the  brilliant  and  eloquent  young  preacher 
from  Albany,  Rev.  Edward  N.  Kirk,  who  aided  Dr.  Beman 
in  revival  work  about  that  time.  Certain  it  is  that  not 
long  before,  that  First  church  had  fallen  under  the  mold- 
ing power  of  the  greatest  evangelist,  preacher,  and  theolo- 
gian, which  perhaps  this  country  ever  has  known,  Charles 
G.  Finney,  and  had  become  noted  for  its  fervor  and 
religious  activities. 

Well  was  it  for  the  man  who  was  to  be  a  pioneer,  that 
his  Christian  life  in  its  very  beginnings  was  stamped  with 
the  positiveness  of  such  spiritual  leaders,  who  tolerated 
no  time-serving,  no  half-heartedness,  no  cowardice  in  the 
convert.  Every  spiritual  child  was  expected  to  be  a 
soldier  from  the  day  of  his  birth. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  such  a  young  man  should  listen 
to  the  call  for  missionary  labor  in  the  great  opening  West. 
There  was  patriotic  blood  in  him,  pioneer  blood,  and  new- 
born Christian  zeal.  The  return  of  a  cousin,  Isaac  Car- 
penter, who  had  explored  the  West,  on  an  Indian-pony, 
from  Detroit  to  St.  Louis,  and  his  report  of  the  land  to  be 
possessed,  and  especially  of  the  favorable  opening  at 
Fort  Dearborn,,  was  the  immediate  occasion  of  young 
Carpenter's  decision  to  come  hither.  He  closed  out  his 
business  early  in  the  summer  of  1832,  shipped  a  stock  of 
drugs  and  medicines  to  P'ort  Dearborn,  took  the  short 
railroad  then  built  to  Schenectady,  thence  took  passage 
on  a  line-boat  on  the  Erie  Canal  to  Buffalo,  thence  on  the 
small    steamer  Enterprise,  Captain  Augustus  Walker,  to 


8  PHILO    CARPENTER. 

Detroit,  thence  by  mud-wagon,  called  a  stage,  to  Niles, 
Michigan,  thence  on  a  lighter  belonging  to  Hiram  Wheeler, 
afterward  a  well-known  merchant  of  Chicago,  to  St. 
Joseph  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  in  company  with 
George  W.  Snow;  thence  they  had  expected  to  sail  in  a 
schooner  to  Fort  Dearborn,  but  on  account  of  the  report 
of  cholera  among  the  troops  there,  a  captain,  one  Carver, 
refused  to  sail  and  had  tied  up  his  vessel.  They  however 
engaged  two  Indians  to  tow  them  around  the  head  of  the 
lake  in  a  canoe,  with  an  elm-bark  tow-rope.  At  Calumet, 
one  of  the  Indians  was  attacked  with  cholera,  but  the 
druggist-doctor  prescribed  for  him  and  they  kept  on  till, 
just  fifty-six  years  ago  this  evening,  they  were  within  sight 
of  the  fort,  at  about  the  present  location  of  the  Douglas 
Monument,  when  the  Indians  refused  to  proceed.  But 
Samuel  Ellis  lived  there  who  had  come  from  Berkshire 
County,  Mass.  They  spent  the  night  with  him  and  he 
brought  them  the  next  morning  in  an  ox-wagon  to  the 
fort,  on  the  i8th  of  July,  1832.* 

There  were  then  here,  outside  the  fort,  less  than  two 
hundred  inhabitants,  mostly  Indians  and  half-breeds,  who 
lived  in  poor  log-houses,  built  on  both  sides  of  the  river 
near  its  mouth. 

The  cholera*!*  was  raging  fearfully  among  the  troops,  and 
Mr.   Carpenter    engaged    at  once    in    ministries    for  their 

*  Rev,  Mr.  Hildreth  reports  this  trip  a  little  differently : — "At  St.  Joseph 
a  Frenchman  told  them  of  a  'very  nice  way  to  go;'  they  hired  the  two  Ind- 
ians, left  St.  Joseph  Monday,  July  i6,  1832.  First  night  stayed  in  a  place 
where  a  vessel  had  been  beached.  Tuesday  night,  reached  a  deserted  house  at 
Calumet.  Wednesday  morning,  pushed  along  and  breakfasted  with  Samuel 
Ellis.  After  breakfast,  Mr.  Ellis  brought  them  with  their  trunks  into  Chi- 
cago, reaching  there  about  noon,  Wednesday,  July  18."  It  is  interesting  ta 
note  that  the  late  Gurdon  S.  Hubbard  made  twenty-six  such  canoe  voyages 
from  Mackinac  to  Chicago,  on  the  east  shore  of  the  lake  from  181 8  onward, 
in  the  service  of  the  American  Fur-Company. 

t  Rev.  H.  L.  Hammond — Dear  Sir:  Will  you  permit  a  stranger  to  express 
her  grateful  appreciation  of  the  Memorial  of  the  late  Philo  Carpenter,  re- 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  9 

relief.  Detecting  life  in  one  young  man,  supposed  to  be 
dead,  he  saved  him  from  a  premature  burial. 

With  a  Methodist  brother  and  an  officer  of  the  fort, 
he  held  a  prayer- meeting  the  first  evening  after  his 
arrival.* 

At  the  end  of  the  first  month,  viz.:  on  August  19,  a 
Sunday-school  was  regularly  organized,  of  which  he  was 
chosen  superintendent.  That  Sunday-school  still  lives  in 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  this  city,  whose  pastor  is 
Rev.  Dr.  John  H.  Barrows.-f- 

cently  read  by  yourself  before  the  Chicago  Historical  Society.  It  was  a  grat- 
ification to  hear  a  tribute  so  truthful  paid  to  the  memory  of  one  who  was  so 
truly  a  friend  of  humanity. 

During  the  dread  summers  of  1849  and  1850  it  was  my  privilege  to  be  a 
member  of  his  family,  and  to  know  how  tireless  were  his  efforts  in  behalf  of 
the  sick  and  suffering.  Fearless  of  disease  himself,  he  seemed  to  lead  a 
charmed  life  among  the  abject  poor,  with  all  their  wretched  surroundings.  It 
was  impossible  in  many  cases  to  obtain  a  physician's  attendance,  and  here 
Chicago's  first  druggist  did  their  work  as  necessity  forced  it  upon  him.  His 
devoted  wife,  while  greatly  fearing  for  her  husband's  safety,  never  sought  to 
restrain  him  in  his  work  of  mercy,  but  with  her  own  hands  prepared  nourish- 
ment to  be  used  in  his  daily  ministrations  among  the  cholera-stricken  to 
whom  he  was  doctor,  nurse,  and  minister.  Said  the  Rev.  Dudley  Chase,  the 
rector  of  the  Church  of  the  Atonement:  "I  never  visit  the  stranger,  the 
sick,  and  the  poor,  but  I  find  that  Deacon  Carpenter  has  been  there  before 
me.  He  ought  to  be  ordained."  It  is  not  strange  that  such  devotion  was 
unrecorded,  for  this  man  in  the  quietness  of  his  daily  life  shunned  the  breath 
of  praise  more  than  that  of  pestilence.     *     *•     »        Yours  Respectfully, 

Chicago,  July  30,  1888.  Sophia  T.   Griswold. 

*  "  Inquiring  if  there  was  any  preaching  on  Sunday,  he  was  told  there  was 
preaching  neither  Sundays  nor  week-days;  and  he  began  public  service,  July 
22,  1832,  reading  a  sermon  in  the  absence  of  a  minister.  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  uninterrupted  public  worship  in  Chicago." — Rev.  Hildreth. 

+  "This  school  was  organized  one  Sabbath  morning  in  the  month  of 
August,  1832.  The  place  of  meeting  was  an  unfinished  building  owned  by 
Mark  Beaubien  [a  Catholic]  now  living  at  Naperville  in  this  State,  situated 
east  of  Michigan  Avenue  and  south  of  Randolph  Street.  The  following  per- 
sons participated  in  the  organization :  Luther  Childs,  Mrs.  Seth  Johnson, 
Misses  Elizabeth  and  Mary  Noble,  and  myself.  Thirteen  children  were  pres- 
ent.    The  next  Sabbath  the  school  met  at  the  house  of  Mark  Noble,  where 


10  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

When  Mr.  Carpenter's  goods  arrived,  he  opened  the 
first  drug-store  in  a  log-building  on  Lake  Street  near  the 
river,  where  there  was  a  great  demand  for  his  drugs, 
especially  his  quinine.  The  anticipated  opening  of  the 
lUinois-and-Michigan  Canal,  a  bill  for  which,  introduced 
by  the  late  Gurdon  S.  Hubbard,  passed  the  Illinois'  house 
of  representatives  in  1833 — though  it  did  not  become  a 
law  till  1835,  and  the  canal  was  not  actually  commenced 
till  Mr.  Hubbard  removed  one  of  the  first  shovelfuls  of 
dirt,  July  4,  1836  —  turned   attention   to    Fort    Dearborn, 

the  weekly  prayer-meeting  had  been  previously  established."  Both  were  con- 
tinued with  slight  interruptions  during  the  fall  and  winter  of  1832-3  in  various 
places.  An  English  friend  by  the  name  of  Osborn  helped  much  in  the  sing- 
ing, John  Wright  and  John  Stephen  Wright,  his  son,  came  and  became 
efficient  helpers  in  the  school ;  the  latter  being  librarian  brought  in  a  silk  hand- 
kerchief the  few  books  we  had,  which  were  a  donation  from  Capt.  Seth  John- 
son. The  school  afterward  found  a  home  for  awhile  in  the  log-house  of  the 
venerable  Jesse  Walker,  a  Methodist  preacher,  near  the  corner  of  Canal  and 
Fulton  streets ;  and  later  still  over  the  store  of  Philip  F.  W.  Peck,  southeast 
corner  of  South- Water  and  LaSalle  streets.  There  two  gentlemen  from  New 
York,  Charles  Butler  and  Arthur  Bronson,  visited  it,  and  seeing  the  meagre- 
ness  of  the  library,  made  a  donation  of  fifty  dollars  for  its  increase.  This  was 
a  great  encouragement  to  both  teachers  and  scholars.  There  Jeremiah  Porter 
found  it,  and  soon  had  an  organized  church. 

"Another  incident  in  the  early  history  of  the  school,  I  will  mention.  A 
chief  of  one  of  the  Indian  tribes  made  his  appearance  in  our  school  and  being 
able  to  converse  somewhat  freely  in  English,  he  listened  to  the  reading  of 
Christ's  words  when  he  taught  us  to  love  one  another  and  even  our  enemies, 
and  after  some  remarks  on  the  mission  of  Christ  to  this  world  to  save  sinners, 
his  voluntary  humiliation  and  death  to  accomplish  so  great  an  object,  he  pro- 
nounced it  \i^ood'  and  called  repeatedly  at  my  place  of  business  for  me  to  read 
and  converse  with  him  on  that  interesting  subject,  and  expressed  a  wish  that 
he  might  have  a  bible,  that  he  might  learn  to  read  it  himself;  but  a  bible 
could  not  be  found  for  sale  in  Chicago  at  that  time,  and  a  few  months  later  I 
purchased  one  for  him  in  New  York  and  presented  it  to  him.  He  declined  to 
receive  it  without  paying  for  the  same  and  expressed  regret  that  he  had  not 
known  more  of  this  divine  message  in  his  earlier  days.  He  was  frequently 
seen  in  our  meetings  until  his  tribe  were  required  to  leave.this  section  of  country, 
which  they  had  ceded  to  the  government,  and  enter  upon  lands  designated  for 
them  in  the  Far  West." — Extracts  from  an  address  by  Philo  Carpenter  to  the 
First  Presbyterian  Sunday-school  in  1868. 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  II 

increased  the  population  rapidly,  and  Mr.  Carpenter's 
business  prospered.  He  soon  removed  to  a  larger  store 
vacated  by  George  W.  Dole,  also  a  log-house,  and  enlarged 
his  stock  with  other  kinds  of  goods.  He  bought  a  lot  on 
South-Water  Street  between  Wells  and  La  Salle  and  there 
built  a  frame-store,  the  lumber  for  which  was  brought  from 
Indiana  on  a  "prairie-schooner"  drawn  by  ten  or  twelve 
oxen.* 

In  1833,  he  also  built  a  two-story  frame-house  on  La 
Salle  Street  opposite  the  court-house  square,  and  having 
been  married  again  in  the  spring  of  1834,  to  Miss  Ann 
Thompson  of  Saratoga,  New  York,  he  made  there  his 
home.  Seven  children  were  the  fruit  of  that  marriage, 
only  two  of  whom,  Mrs.  W.  W.  Cheney  and  Mrs,  Rev. 
Edward  Hildreth,  and  the  children  of  a  third,  Mrs.  W.  W. 
Strong,  survive  him. 

In  1842,  he  removed  his  business  to  143  Lake  Street; 
the  next  year  he  sold  out  to  Dr.  John  Brinkerhoof;  some 
of  the  fixtures  are  thought  to  have  remained  in  use  till 
consumed  in  the  great  fire  of  1871.  After  the  sale,  Mr. 
Carpenter  confined  his  business  to  the  care  of  his  real 
estate,  which  had  then  become  considerable,  as  he  had 
appropriated  all  his  spare  funds  to  its  purchase.  He  had 
sublime  faith  in  the  future  value  of  Chicago  real  estate. 
He  early  acquired  a  quarter- section,  ten  miles  up  the 
north   branch  of   the   river,-|*  and   another   quarter  on   the 

*  "Indiana  contributed  many  customers,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  in  those 
primitive  days  the  Hoosiers  never  wanted  a  bill ;  they  would  buy  a  pair  of 
boots,  pay  for  them,  carefully  pocket  the  change,  set  the  'understandings'  in 
one  corner,  then  buy  perhaps  a  bolt  of  sheeting,  pay  for  that  in  the  same  way, 
and  so  on  to  the  end  of  a  list  of  a  dozen  or  more  articles.  These  were  curi- 
ous customers,  but  they  were  a  peculiar  people.  One  of  them  came  into  the 
store  one  day  shaking  with  fever  and  ague,  which  was  also  a  peculiar  western 
institution,  and  announced  as  he  sat  down  on  a  candle-box,  'Say,  stranger, 
I'm  powerful  weak.'" — "Leading  Men  of  Chicago,"  page  8. 

t  Col.  Richard  J.  Hamilton,  Capt.  Seth  Johnson,  Lieut.  Julius  J.  Backus 
Kingsbury,  and  Philo  Carpenter  bought  each  a  quarter-section  of  timber-land 


12  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

west  side,  which  he  afterward  subdivided  as  Carpenter's 
Addition  to  Chicago.  It  is  that  part  of  the  west  side 
now  bounded  by  W.-Kinzie  Street  on  the  north,  Halsted  on 
the  east,  W.-Madison  on  the  south,  and  a  hne  between  Ann 
and  Ehzabeth  on  the  west.  He  went  to  Washington  and 
secured  a  patent  for  this  quarter-section  signed  by  Andrew 
Jackson,  which  his  heirs  still  possess.*  Few  shared  his 
sanguine  expectations  when  he  preempted  this  tract  as  the 
foundation  of  his  fortune.  "It  was  so  far  from  the  village." 
"It  would  never  be  wanted  except  for  farm  purposes,  and 
was  too  low  and  marshy  even  for  cultivation."  "In  the 
spring  of  the  year  it  was  often  under  water  and  could  be 
crossed  only  by  boat,"  and  "there  was  little  prospect  that 
it  could  ever  be  plowed  except  by  anchors."  Rev.  Flavel 
Bascom  tells  us  that  when  he  first  came  with  his  wife  to 
Illinois  and  was  being  carried  by  Philo  Carpenter  in  a 
two-seated  buggy  across  the  mud  bottoms  of  West  Chi- 
cago toward  the  interior,  at  one  place  Mr.  C.  stopped, 
pointed  to  a  marsh  and  said:  "Here  I  have  preempted  a 
quarter-section  of  land  which  I  expect  will  make  me  rich 
some  day."  The  young  minister  and  his  wife  on  the  back 
seat  exchanged  significant  glances  at  the  visionary  antici- 
pations of  the  good  deacon. 

About  1840,  Mr.  Carpenter  removed  his  residence  to 
the  west  side,  built  a  fine  house  as  it  was  then  thought,  in 

from  Billy  Caldwell,  a  half-breed,  paying  him  two  hundred  dollars  each,  a 
dollar  and  a  quarter  per  acre.  This  was  the  government  price.  The  two  lots, 
forty  feet,  he  bought  on  South- Water  Street,  cost  him  seventy-five  dollars. 
One  lot  on  La  Salle  Street,  25  x  180  feet,  he  bought  of  Mark  Beaubien  for 
twenty-five  dollars  worth  of  goods.  Beaubien  had  won  this  lot  in  a  raffle, 
but  he  carefully  concealed  the  fact  from  the  Deacon  till  the  bargain  was 
completed. 

*  It  was  probably  on  that  journey  to  Washington,  which  occupied  three 
weeks,  that  he  set  out  at  the  same  time  with  an  U.-S.  officer  who  traveled 
on  the  Sabbath  in  his  haste  on  public  business,  but  the  deacon  kept  his  con- 
science as  well  as  holy  time,  and  tho'  he  apparently  lost  three  days,  he  yet 
rode  into  Washington  on  the  same  train  with  the  official. — Rev.  Hildreth, 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  1 3 

the  middle  of  one  block  of  his  addition,  which  is  bounded 
by  W.-Randolph  Street  on  the  north,  Morgan  on  the  east, 
W.-Washington  on  the  south,  and  Carpenter  on  the  west. 
There  I  found  him  when  I  came  to  Chicago  in  1856 — one 
of  the  earliest  acquaintances  I  made  here  thirty-two  years 
ago.  I  could  but  admire  the  place,  for  he  had  tried,  as  he 
told  me,  to  plant  in  that  block  every  kind  of  tree  and 
shrub  found  in  this  region,  and  he  showed  his  good  taste 
by  allowing  them  all  to  grow  naturally.  Not  one  was 
trained  into  any  fantastic  shape,  or  deformed  with  shears. 
That  was  long  the  most  prominent  house  on  the  west  side. 
It  has  lately  been  removed  and  the  entire  block  offered 
for  sale  by  the  heirs.  It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  it 
should  be  bought  by  the  city  for  a  park — a  little  breathing 
place  of  convenient  access  to  the  people  amid  many 
blocks  of  buildings.  It  should  be  improved  after  his 
plan  and  called  Carpenter  Park,  as  a  perpetual  memor- 
ial of  the  good  pioneer.  And  better  still,  if  some  tablet 
could  tell  that  this  was  the  resting-place  of  good  men  and 
women  coming  to  the  West  for  its  salvation  from  barbar- 
ism, intemperance,  and  infidelity,  who  were  refreshed  by 
the  generous  hospitalities  of  Mr.  Carpenter  and  his  worthy 
wife,  and  sent  on  their  way  with  a  hearty  God  speed. 

And  another  tablet  should  tell  of  it  as  the  hiding-place 
for  the  colored  emigrant  from  the  South,  whom  this 
officer  on  the  underground  railroad  piloted  by  night  to 
Canada-bound  vessels,  as  they  were  seeking  that  liberty 
which  was  then  denied  them  under  the  stars  and  stripes.* 

There  he  lived  till  1865,  when  with  the  hope  of  benefit- 
ting his  wife's  health,  he  removed  to  Aurora,  111.,  where 
she  died  six  months  afterward;"!*  and  for  the  last  twenty 
years  of  his  life  he  was  alone  in  his  pilgrimage. 

*  Two  hundred  fugitives  it  is  said  were  thus  helped  to  a  land  of  liberty,  and 
it  is  not  known  that  one  of  thenr  was  ever  recaptured. 

+  Only  the  angels  know  how  much  of  the  usefulness  of  this  good  man  was 


14  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

He  returned  to  the  city  to  spend  the  last  twelve  years, 
but  not  to  the  historic  block.  His  health  was  delicate. 
He  was  unable  to  undertake  new  business,  but  lived 
quietly  with  his  children  till  Aug.  7,  1886,  when  he  passed 
to  his  eternal  home. 

wrought  by  the  prayerful  influence  of  his  sainted  wife,  Ann  Thompson  Car- 
penter. So  symmetrical  was  her  character  in  all  the  womanly  virtues,  so 
exalted  her  standard  of  personal  piety,  that  one,  who  had  known  her  intimately 
for  years,  hesitates  to  tell  the  simple  truth  lest  the  words  find  no  credence. 
There  was  an  indescribable  charm  in  the  house  over  which  she  presided,  and  the 
wanderer  and  the  wayfarer  always  found  a  place  and  a  welcome.  In  all  the 
trials  of  life,  in  the  sickness  and  death  of  three  children  there  was  the  same 
unmurmuring  spirit,  the  same  loving  submission  to  the  will  of  God.  In 
perfect  sympathy  with  her  husband  in  every  work  of  reform,  she  was  ever  fear- 
ful that  his  zeal  should  find  some  hasty  utterance  that  would  wound  the  feelings 
of  another.  He  was  a  person  of  strong  convictions,  she,  of  deep  sympathies. 
While  he  denounced  sin,  her  mantle  of  charity  was  covering  the  sinner.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  in  her  sweet  spirit  every  Christian  grace  had 

special  prominence. 

As  one,  who  in  the  press  of  life. 

Had  touched  the  Garment-hem, 
Then  passed  away,  as  angels  may, 

To  wear  a  diadem; 
As  one  belov'd,  at  whose  approach. 

The  gates  wide  open  spring, 
We  dream  of  thee,  thus  welcomed  home, 

O  !  Daughter  of  the  King. 

The  dead,  departed  in  the  Lord, 

Are  blest  beyond  compare; 
Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,   for  they  rest 

From  all  their  toilsome  care. 
While,  one  by  one  her  works  of  love 

The  angel  reapers  bring. 
How  blessed  her  reward  above. 

This  daughter  of  the  King ! 

Yet  long  and  selfishly  we  mourned 

That  Heaven's  high  behest 
Had  quenched  the  love-light  in  our  midst, 

And  lulled  her    to  her  rest. 
The  breath  of  song  and  tenderness — 

The  sweetest  notes  of  Spring, 
Recall  thy  spirit  loveliness, 

O!  Daughter  of  the  King.— "Paulina." 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  1 5 

I  have  briefly  followed  the  outline  of  his  life  with  the 
intention  to  go  back  and  speak  more  particularly  of  his 
characteristics  and  his  labors: 

I.  He  was  a  pioneer  of  the  best  things.  His  coming 
here  at  that  early  day,  that  prayer  -  meeting  the  first 
evening,  that  first  organization  of  a  Sunday-school  have 
already  been  mentioned.  When  Rev.  Jeremiah  Porter  was 
considering  the  question  of  accepting  a  call  to  labor  in 
Fort  Dearborn,  he  was  told,  "There  is  one  good  man  there 
who  has  organized  a  Sunday-school."  He  came,  found 
the  man  and  the  school,  and  began  his  labors.  Mr.  Car- 
penter and  a  few  others,  under  the  guidance  of  the  young 
minister,  formed  the  first  church  here,  the  First  Presbyter- 
ian, of  which  he  was  chosen  one  of  the  elders.  The  date 
of  the  organization  was  June  26,  1833.  Dea.  Carpenter 
wrote  and  circulated  the  first  temperance  pledge,  and 
delivered  the  first  temperance  address.  A  meeting  had 
been  arranged,  and  a  lawyer.  Col.  Richard  J.  Hamilton, 
engaged  to  deliver  the  address,  but  at  a  late  day,  the 
lawyer  declined  to  speak.  Our  pioneer  hastily  prepared 
himself  and  filled  the  gap.* 

He  was  one  of  the  first  officers  of  the  Chicago  Bible- 
Society,  founded  August  18,  1835. 

He  early  interested  himself  in  the  cause  of  education^ 
earnestly  opposing  the  sale  of  the  school- section  in 
Chicago,  and  pleaded  that  only  alternate  blocks  should 
be  put  on  the  market.  Other  counsels  prevailed,  and  all 
but  four  blocks  of  the  tract,  bounded  north  by  Madison, 
east  by  State,  south  by  12th,  and  west  by  Halsted  Streets, 
were  sold  for  less  than  $40,000  dollars.     But  few  years 

*  "He  used  to  laugh  about  the  literary  quality  of  the  address,  but  the 
house  was  crowded  and  not  a  few  items  of  interest  have  survived." — Hildreth. 

The  meeting  was  held  in  the  log  -  building  of  Rev.  Jesse  Walker.  An 
Indian  chief  was  persuaded  to  practise  total  abstinence  and  appeared  to  be 
a  sincere  Christian  while  he  remained  under  Mr.  Carpenter's  influence. 


1 6  PHILO    CARPENTER. 

elapsed  before  the  138  blocks  sold  were  worth  many 
millions.  For  ten  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  board 
of  education.  His  connection  did  not  cease  till  his 
removal  to  Aurora  in  1865.  On  his  return  from  Europe 
in  1867,  he  found  one  of  the  palatial  school-houses  of  the 
west  side,  at  Centre  Avenue,  corner  West -Huron  Street, 
named  in  his  honor,  the  Carpenter  School,  for  which  he 
gave  $1000  as  an  endowment  for  text-books  for  indigent 
children. 

The  first  "one-horse  shay"  that  made  its  appearance  in 
Chicago  in  1834,  contained  Philo  Carpenter  and  his 
newly-married  wife.  The  first  dray  was  introduced  by 
him;  and  the  first  platform-scales,  which  are  now  in  pos- 
session of  Daniel  Warne  of  Batavia,  111.,  which  can  weigh 
up  to  750  pounds;  also  the  first  fire-proof  safe. 

He  was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  Third  Pres- 
byterian Church,  formed  July  i,  1847,  ^"d  was  one  of  its 
elders.  He  was  one  of  the  first  corporate  members  of  the 
Chicago  Eye-and-Ear  Infirmary,  and  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Chicago  Relief-and-Aid  Society.  He  was  the  leader  in 
the  formation  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  in  May, 
185 1.  And  as  that  event  gave  him  special  prominence  in 
that  denomination  and  in  the  country,  the  circumstances 
are  worth  noting.  He  had  long  been  interested  in  the  anti- 
slavery  cause.  He  was  a  patron  of  the  Alton  Observer, 
Elijah  Parish  Lovejoy's  paper;  he  helped  to  establish 
Zebina  Eastman's  paper,  the  Western  Citizen,  here  in  Chi- 
cago. His  activity  in  behalf  of  fugitive  slaves  has  been 
already  mentioned.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Cincinnati 
convention,  held  in  April,  1850,  which  resolved: 

"That  the  friends  of  pure  Christianity  ought  to  separate 
themselves  from  all  slaveholding  churches,  ecclesiastical 
bodies,  and  missionary  organizations  that  are  not  fully 
divorced  from  the  sin  of  slave-holding;  and  we  who  may 
be  still  in  connection   with   such  bodies,  pledge  ourselves 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  1/ 

that  we  will,  by  the  aid  of  Divine  grace,  conform  our 
action  in  accordance  with  this  resohition,  and  come  out 
from  among  them,  unless  such  bodies  shall  speedily  sepa- 
rate themselves  from  all  support  of  or  fellowship  with 
slaveholding." 

He  was  not  a  man  to  vote  for  a  resolution  in  public  and 
forget  all  about  it  in  private,  and  as  the  general  assembly 
of  the  Presbyterian  church,  which  met  in  Detroit  in  May 
of  that  year,  failed,  in  Deacon  Carpenter's  view,  to  take 
right  action,  he  led  the  church  to  adopt  a  minute  that  they 
would  not  be  represented  in  presbytery,  synod,  or  general 
assembly  till  right  action  was  taken.  This  minute*  was,  of 
course,  entirely  unpresbyterial  and  unconstitutional.  Nev- 
ertheless it  was  adopted  by  forty-eight  out  of  sixty-eight 
resident  members.  The  presbx'tery,  after  giving  them  a 
little  time  to  rescind  their  vote,  were  compelled  to  treat  the 
majority  as  seceders,  and  to  recognize  the  minority  as  the 
Third  Church— an  act  supposed  to  be  ecclesiastically  right, 
although  it  involved  turning  the  majority  of  the  church 
out  of  the  building  they  had  in  great  part  erected,  and  to 
which  they  thought  themselves  justly  entitled."!" 

*  Minute  of  the  majority  of  the  Third  Presbyterian  Church  in  reference  to 
fellowship  with  slave-holders:  i.  Resolved,  That  this  Church  holds  that  in 
the  language  of  the  Scripture,  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  the 
earth.  2.  Resolved,  That  chattel  slavery  is  blasphemous  toward  God,  inhu- 
man and  cruel  to  our  fellow-men,  and  that  Christians  are  especially  called  on 
to  discoutenance  it  and  and  have  no  fellowship  with  those  who  participate  in 
its  abominations.  3.  Resolved,  That  this  Church  are  dissatisfied  with  the 
present  position  of  our  general  assembly  on  the  subject  of  disciplining  those 
guilty  of  holding  their  fellow-men  in  bondage;  that  their  last  acts  at  Detroit 
have  been  construed  to  represent  black  or  white  as  suited  the  different  sections 
of  the  church.  4.  Resolved,  That  this  Church,  so  long  as  this  vascillating 
policy  is  pursusd,  hereby  declare  their  determination  to  stand  aloof  from  all 
meetings  of  presbytery,  synod,  and  general  assembly,  and  thus,  as  they 
believe  free,  and  relieve  themselves  of  all  responsibility. " 

t  "  History  of  the  Chicago  Presbytery,"  pps.  lo-i  i.  "At  a  meeting  of  the 
presbytery,  called  to  investigate  the  difficulties  in  the  Third  Presbyterian 
Church,  May  2,  185 1,  it  appeared  that  a  majority  of  that  church  had  voted 


1 8  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

There  was,  however,  an  addition  to  the  church  which 
the  Deacon  had  himself  built  for  a  session-room,  which 
had  not  been  turned  over  to  the  trustees.  He  therefore 
gave  notice  that  Divine  service  would  be  conducted  as 
usual  in  the  session-room.* 

A  council  was  soon  called,  and  the  First  Congregational 

to  stand  aloof  from  all  meetings  of  the  presbytery,  synod,  and  general  assem- 
bly, so  long  as  the  assembly  should  maintain  its  then  present  attitude  in 
relation  to  slavery.  A  committee  appointed  to  confer  with  the  church  found 
that  the  majority  would  neither  rescind  their  resolution  of  withdrawal,  nor 
consent  to  an  amicable  separation  and  an  equitable  division  of  the  property, 
and  so  reported.  Therefore  the  presbytery  appointed  a  committee,  Rev. 
Henry  Curtis,  D.D.,  chairman,  to  consider  the  whole  matter  and  report.. 
The  committee  in  due  time  reported  that  in  their  judgment  the  action  of  the 
majority  of  the  church  involved  secession  from  the  Presbyterian  church;  and 
that  the  majority  by  this  action  and  by  refusing  to  rescind  their  resolution, 
did  hereby  disqualify  themselves  to  act  as  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  and  recommended  that  the  session,  viz:  the  pastor  and  those  elders 
who  did  not  vote  for  the  resolution  aforesaid,  be  directed  immediately  to 
inform  the  majority  that  if  any  of  them  still  wished  to  walk  in  fellowship  with 
this  church  under  the  constitution  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  their  wish 
should  be  granted;  and  that  those  who  should  not  express  such  wish  within 
two  weeks,  be  regarded  as  adhering  to  their  previous  action  and  the  session 
be  directed  to  strike  their  names  from  the  roll  of  the  church. "  This  report 
was,  after  full  discussion,  adopted. 

The  records  of  the  presbytery  show  that  there  was  a  proposal  to  end  the 
strife  in  the  Third  church  by  an  amicable  division  of  the  church  and  its 
property.  But  as  the  difficulties  of  the  majority  were  not  with  the  minority, 
but  with  the  whole  church  as  represented  by  the  general  assembly,  no  division 
of  the  Third  church  could  meet  the  case;  moreover,  as  the  majority  were 
declared  to  have  disqualified  themselves  to  act  as  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  how  they  could  have  been  received  into  the  presbytery  as  perhaps  a 
Fourth  church  does  not  appear.  They  were  also  exhorted  by  presbytery  to 
study  the  things  that  make  for  peace,"  etc.  The  inspired  precept,  however, 
"first  pure,  then  peaceable,"  restricted  such  studies.  There  is  no  record  of 
any  proposition  to  divide  the  property  after  the  majority  decided  to  become 
congregational  in  polity.     In  fact  the  minority  retained  it  all. 

*  While  the  divided  congregation  were  worshiping,  a  part  in  the  audience- 
room  and  a  part  in  the  session-room,  one  family  at  least  was  divided,  and  a 
young  man  was  asked  on  his  return:  "Well !  how  did  you  get  along  in  the 
kitchen  to-day?"  "Very  nicely,"  he  replied.  "The  best  things  all  come 
from  the  kitchen." 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  19 

Church  of  Chicago  was  formed,  May  22,  185 1.  The  names 
of  Philo  Carpenter  and  Ann  Carpenter  stand  first  and 
second  on  its  roll  of  members.  He  was  elected  deacon, 
and  retained  the  office  till  he  removed  to  Aurora,  and  after 
his  return  was  made  deacon  emeritus^' 

Of  two  wooden  church  edifices  erected  for  their  accom- 
modation, largely  at  the  expense  of  Deacon  Carpenter, 
one  which  was  occasionally  besmeared  and  called  "Car- 
penter's nigger  church,"  was  burned  to  the  ground  on 
a  Sunday  night  after  Rev.  Joseph  E.  Roy,  who  had  just 
come  from  an  Eastern  seminary,  had  preached  in  it  his 
maiden  western  sermon.  Whether  the  fire  was  communi- 
cated by  a  spark  from  the  young  man's  discourse,  or  by 
an  incendiary,  or  was  purely  accidental,  does  not  appear. 
The  other  on  Green  Street,  near  West  Washington,  was 
soon  outgrown — Rev.  Geo.  W.  Perkins  was  then  the  pop- 
ular preacher — and  a  permanent  house  of  rock-faced  stone 

*  From  records  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  Wednesday  evening, 
July  19,  1882.  At  the  prayer-meeting  this  evening,  on  motion  duly  made  and 
seconded,  the  Church  by  a  rising  vote  unanimously  adopted  the  following: 

Whereas,  Our  brother  Philo  Carpenter,  has  just  completed  fifty  years  of  resi- 
dence here,  during  which  time  all  that  is  now  called  Chicago  has  come  into 
existence,  and  all  the  history  of  the  city  has  been  made;  and 

Whereas,  In  addition  to  his  public  and  private  life  and  labors,  for  which  we 
in  common  with  all  our  fellow-citizens  do  him  honor,  we  desire  to  make 
grateful  special  mention  of  his  relationship  to  this  church:  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  we  recognize  iu  him  the  Father  of  this  church,  not  only  as 
first  member  on  its  records,  but  the  one  who  above  all  others  is  to  he  regarded 
as  its  founder  and  its  earliest  benefactor  and  friend. 

Resolved,  That  we  put  on  record  our  appreciation  of  his  faithfulness  to 
principles  of  right  which  led  to  the  formation  of  this  church,  and  our  most 
hearty  congratulations  that  his  life  has  been  spared,  not  only  to  see  the  feeble 
church  of  thirty  years  ago  become  the  strong  body  it  now  is,  but  also  to  see 
the  Nation  adopt  the  principles  he  then  labored  and  suffered  for,  by  the  put- 
ting away  of  slavery. 

Resolved,  That  this  church  in  appreciation  of  its  regard  for  Deacon  Carpen- 
ter and  of  his  long  connection  with  it,  does  hereby  elect  him  Deacon  Emeritus 
for  life,  and  the  clerk  is  hereby  instructed  to  forward  to  him  a  copy  of  this 
action  duly  attested.  (Attest)    J.  W.  Sykes,  Clerk. — f. 


20  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

was  put  up  on  the  corner  of  West-Washington  and  Green 
streets.  Deacon  Carpenter  advanced  most  of  the  money, 
and  waited  on  the  society  many  years  for  its  repayment 
without  interest." 

A  Httle  later  he  united  with  Joseph  Johnston,  Rev.  John 
C.  Holbrook,  and  Chas.  Goodrich  Hammond  in  starting  the 
first  denominational  paper  here,  the  Congregational  Herald- 
In  1855,  he  was  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  Chicago 
Theological  Seminary,  and  for  many  years  was  one  of  its 
board  of  directors  and  chairman  of  its  executive  com- 
mittee. He  afterward  engaged  with  great  zeal  in  oppos- 
ing secret,  oath-bound  societies.  In  early  life,  before  he 
came  West,  his  indignation  had  been  aroused  by  the 
abduction  in  Western  New  York,  of  William  Morgan,  for 
publishing  a  little  book  revealing  the  secrets  of  Free- 
masonry. The  abducted  man  was  never  found  or  heard  of 
after,  and  was  supposed  to  have  been  murdered.  The 
perpetrators  of  the  crime  escaped  justice,  and  public 
sentiment  held  the  Masonic  fraternity  responsible  for  their 
escape.  Deacon  Carpenter  suggested  the  establishment  of 
a  paper  to  oppose  all  such  secret  societies,  and  gave  the 
money  for  the  publication  of  the  first  number  of  the 
Christian  Cynosure,  and  provided  headquarters  for  the 
movement  at  a  cost  of  $20,000,  He  bought  for  gratuitous 
circulation  looo  copies  of  Finney's  book  on  Masonry,  and 
wrote  and  distributed  tracts  of  his  own  on  the  subject. 
Few  of  his  colaborers  in  other  reforms  partook  of  his 
zeal  in  this,  and  the  methods  of  some  of  the  friends  of  the 
reform  he  could  not  approve,  yet  he  continued  the  war 
undaunted  while  he  lived,  and  provided  in  his  will  for  its 
continuance  after  his  death. 

Surely  we  have  here  specifications  enough  to  show  that 

*  A  second  stone  building  was  erected  at  the  south-west  corner  of  West 
Washington  and  Ann  Streets  in  1870 ;  destroyed  by  fire  January  16,  1873, 
rebuilt  and  is  now  occupied  by  the  church. 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  21 

from    first    to   last   he    was    a   grand  pioneer  of  the  best 
things. 

2.  Philo  Carpenter  was  a  wise  man.  With  rare  sagac- 
ity he  foresaw  the  future  of  Chicago,  discerning  the 
great  city  through  the  small  trading-post;  and  his  con- 
fidence never  wavered.  He  wisely  bent  his  energies  to  the 
establishment  of  the  most  useful  institutions  for  the 
coming  city.  His  sagacious  forecast  for  this  trading-post 
is  proved  by  its  growth  in  a  little  more  than  half  a 
century  from  two  hundred  souls  to  three-quarters  of  a 
million,  and  his  judgment  of  the  first  institution  needed 
has  been  confirmed  by  the  establishment  of  nearly  three 
hundred  Sunday-schools  in  it,  and  more  than  four  hundred 
in  Cook  County ;  our  citizens  have  indorsed  the  church  by 
founding  more  than  four  hundred  of  them  of  all  kinds. 
That  First  Congregational  Church  has  here  some  fifty 
junior  sisters.  The  public-school  has  been  approved  by 
the  creation  of  nearly  one  hundred  of  those  temples  of 
learning,  which  are  the  pride  of  the  city  and  the  Meccas 
of  the  children.  The  need  of  that  temperance  pledge  is 
sadly  evinced  by  our  four  thousand  saloons  still  foolishly 
patronized;  his  opinion  of  slavery  became  the  opinion  of 
the  Nation  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  During  the  war, 
Deacon  Carpenter  and  one  of  the  elders  who  remained  in 
the  Third  Church  were  reading  together  from  the  bulletin 
at  the  Tribune  office,  when  the  elder,  giving  him  his  hand, 
said:  "Deacon,  you  were  right  and  we  were  wrong."  That 
Theological  Seminary  has  sent  out  more  than  three  hun- 
dred graduates,  has  more  than  one  hundred  regular  stu- 
dents, and  nine  professors  and  teachers,  some  of  whom 
have  obtained  a  national  reputation.  Four  or  five  other 
denominations  have  imitated  the  Congregational.ists  in  their 
zeal  for  theological  education  in  this  metropolis  of  the 
West.  As  for  secret  societies,  though  our  brother  "received 
not  the  promise,"  he  yet  "died  in  the  faith;"  and  we  may 


22  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

say  "the  end  is  not  yet."  The  Masonic  fraternity  could 
not  do  now  what  it  was  accused  of  doing  in  1826,  without 
being  swept  from  the  land  by  a  cyclone  of  public  opinion. 
Who  shall  say  that  the  good  man  could,  on  the  whole, 
have  more  wisely  used  his  time,  his  strength,  and  his 
money .-' 

3.  Deacon  Carpenter  was  an  honest  man.  The  finan- 
cial crash  of  1837  found  him  an  indorser  on  paper  of 
unfortunate  friends.  He  made  no  effort,  as  is  often  done, 
to  evade  his  responsibilities,  but  borrowed  the  money  and 
met  the  claims.  When  it  became  necessary  to  pay  what 
he  had  borrowed,  and  money  could  not  be  procured,  he 
spread  out  a  full  schedule  of  all  his  real  estate,  and 
allowed  two  disinterested  men  to  select  from  any  part  of 
it  what  they  deemed  a  fair  equivalent  for  the  debt.  It  is 
astonishing  to  note  how  much  they  selected,  evincing,  as  it 
did,  the  immense  depreciation  of  western  lots  and  lands 
after  1837,  viz.\  960  acres  in  Fayette  County,  Illinois,  four 
and  a  half  blocks  in  Carpenter's  Addition,  half  a  block  in 
the  School  Section,  three  lots  on  Washington  Street  near 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  a  house  and  lot,  his 
homestead  on  LaSalle  Street,  opposite  the  court-house — 
property  that  was  soon  prized  at  more  than  one  million 
dollars — to  pay  a  claim  of  $8600!  However  excessive  he 
may  have  thought  the  award,  he  faithfully  carried  out  the 
agreement.  Probably  the  severest  thing  he  ever  said 
about  the  award  was:  "I  should  have  thought  they 
might  have  left  me  my  home!" 

My  neighbor,  the  late  James  Ward,  well  known  in  con- 
nection with  the  public-school  buildings,  told  me:  "I 
located  in  Chicago  against  the  earnest  remonstrances  of 
my  father,  who  thought  it  a  den  of  thieves,  and  could  not 
believe  there  were  any  honest  men  here.  I  bought  a  lot 
of  Philo  Carpenter  and  partly  paid  for  it.  My  father,  hesi- 
tatingly, sent  me  from  the  East  money  to  complete  the 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  2$ 

payment.  I  took  the  amount  to  Mr.  Carpenter.  He 
received  and  counted  it,  then  took  out  his  pencil  and 
began  to  figure.  I  feared  I  had  made  some  mistake,  and 
asked  him  if  there  was  not  enough.  He  repHed,  'Yes; 
more  than  enough,  for  there  is  a  premium  on  Eastern 
money.'  He  computed  the  sum  and  passed  it  back.  I 
wrote  to  my  father  that  there  was  at  least  one  honest  man 
in  Chicago." 

A  Milwaukee  lawyer,  who  did  not  know  him  very  well, 
once  wrote  him  that  through  a  defect  in  the  conveyance 
he  might  recover  possession  of  some  property  he  had  sold, 
which  had  greatly  appreciated.  He  came  out  of  his  office 
holding  the  letter  in  his  hand,  with  that  look  of  scorn 
which  meanness  always  evoked,  and  said  to  his  wife: 
"Hear  what  a  shyster  lawyer  has  written  to  me."  "Well, 
you  will  pay  no  attention  to  it,  of  course.'"  she  replied. 
"This,"  said  he,  "is  my  answer:  'Sir,  I  made  that  sale  in 
good  faith,  and  in  good  faith  it  shall  stand.' " 

I  do  not  find  that  Mr.  Carpenter  ever  engaged  in  any  of 
tHe  questionable  enterprises  and  speculations  that  abound 
here.  He  did  not  lend  his  name  to  the  baseless  mining, 
banking,  insurance,  and  other  schemes.  He  did  not 
dabble  in  stocks.  He  was  not  in  any  combinations  to 
corner  the  market  and  force  up  the  prices  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life.  He  did  not  operate  on  the  Board  of  Trade, 
although,  as  it  seems  to  some  of  us,  a  too- lenient  public 
sentiment  tolerates  there  what  is  not  thought  honest  in 
the  common  walks  of  life. 

He  held  a  large  amount  of  real  estate,  on  which  he  put 
his  own  price — a  higher  price  often  than  the  estimate  of 
his  fellow-citizens.  But  this  is  not  strange  for  one  who 
had  his  remarkable  faith  in  the  future  of  Chicago,  and 
who  had  seen  those  values  arise  from  nothing.  We  think 
it  not  at  all  extravagant  to  point  to  him  as  an  "Israel- 
ite, indeed,  without  guile." 


24  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

4.  Philo  Carpenter  was  a  benevolent  man.  Probably  no 
object  of  charity,  public  or  private,  which  he  deemed 
worthy,  ever  appealed  to  him  in  vain.  It  is  impossible  to 
estimate  the  amount  of  his  benefactions.  They  were  a 
steady  and  ever-increasing  stream,  from  the  organization 
of  that  first  Sunday-school  in  1832,  to  the  date  of  his  last 
will  and  testament.  No  computation  is  known  of  the 
amounts  he  gave  to  the  earlier  churches  with  which  he  was 
connected,  but  it  is  known  that  he  gave  to  the  First  Con- 
gregational Church,  first  and  last,  more  than  $50,000.  To 
the  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  he  had  given  before 
his  death  more  than  $60,000,  and  in  his  will  made  it  the 
residuary  legatee  of  his  estate,  which,  it  is  expected,  will 
amount  to  not  less  than  $50,000  more.  To  the  American 
Home  Missionary  Society,  the  American  Board,  and  the 
American  Missionary  Association  he  deeded,  several  years, 
ago,  each  a  three-story  brick-house  on  Ann  Street,  avail- 
able after  his  death.  To  the  National  Christian  Associa- 
tion he  had  given  property  worth  $40,000  or  $50,000,  aqd 
his  will  added  $6000  to  the  objects  it  represented.  Rela- 
tives and  friends  had  been  freely  aided  during  his  life,, 
and  were  provided  for  after  his  death.  One-quarter  of 
all  his  real  estate  was  given  to  benevolent  objects  in  his 
will.  As  the  gross  amount  was  about  $400,000,  this 
turned  $100,000  into  the  channels  of  benevolence. 

5.  Philo  Carpenter  was  a  modest  man.  He  was  always 
unassuming.  He  never  put  himself  forward.  When  there 
were  reproaches  to  meet  and  trials  to  brave,  or  burdens  to 
carry  he  never  was  found  in  the  rear;  but  when  there  were 
honors  to  gain  he  never  crowded  to  the  front.  While  a 
member  of  the  board  of  education,  he  declined  the  presi- 
dency, and  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  accept  only  the 
vice-presidency.  He  never  was  elected  to  a  civil  office^ 
and  never  ran  for  any. 

In  the  church,  though  its  founder  and  wealthiest  mem- 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  2$ 

ber,  he  never  sought  to  control,  never  claimed  any  superi- 
ority over  the  poorest  of  his  brethren.  I  can  emphatically 
say  that  in  all  my  intercourse  with  him  I  was  never  once 
made  to  feel  that  I  was  the  poor  man  and  he  was  the 
millionaire.  Where  no  principle  was  at  stake  he  was 
deferential  to  others,  polite,  courteous — in  short  the  true 
Christian  gentleman. 

6.  Some  of  you  may  be  surprised  to  hear  me  speak 
next  of  his  great  moral  strength. 

A  quiet,  modest  man,  who  pursues  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way  without  noise,  without  bluster,  without  ostentation, 
seldom  gets  credit  for  his  strength.  People  often  forget 
that  real  power  is  best  evinced  by  doing  one's  work  easily, 
calmly,  and  uniformly.  In  all  questions  of  reform  or 
practical  morality,  everybody  knew  where  Deacon  Carpen- 
ter would  be  found.  Nobody  thought  of  the  possibility 
of  his  yielding  to  the  solicitations  of  the  saloon,  the 
fascinations  of  the  private  wine-cup,  the  excitement  of  the 
race-course,  or  the  gamester's  table.  One  instance  of  the 
kind  would  have  brought  all  busy  Chicago  to  a  standstill, 
in  perfect  wonderment  at  what  would  occur  next.  Why 
so.^  How  did  it  happen  that  with  all  the  temptations  of 
this  great  and  wicked  city,  and  so  many  lamentable 
examples  of  weak  yielding  to  the  strong  current,  Deacon 
Carpenter  stood  often  alone,  unmoved  as  old  Mackinac, 
upon  which  the  winds  and  waves  of  Lake  Michigan  come 
three  hundred  miles  from  the  south  and  surround  it,  the 
northeasters  from  Lake  Huron  drive  their  floods  into  the 
Straits,  the  northwesters,  roaring  the  three  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  down  Lake  Superior  heap  their  waters  high 
about  it,  but  the  little  rock-rooted  island  stands  as  firm  as 
when  it  was  first  discovered,  some  three  hundred  years 
ago! 

Such  examples  of  moral  power  are  by  no  means  too 
common  in  this  generation.     We  do  well  to   mark  and 


26  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

honor  them.  Doubtless  other  citizens  of  Chicago — Gur- 
don  S.  Hubbard,  WilHam  B.  Ogden,  John  Wentworth,  J. 
Young  Scammon,  Roswell  B  Mason,  Charles  G.  Ham- 
mond, and  others — did  more  directly  to  establish  business 
enterprises  of  various  kinds  in  this  city;  but  in  laying  the 
moral  foundations  on  which  so  much  of  the  real  prosper- 
ity of  a  city  depends,  no  man  probably  equalled  Philo 
Carpenter.  To  do  and  say  the  right  thing  at  the  right 
time  has  ever  been  considered  an  important  element  of 
strength.  The  story  is  told  that  when,  after  a  day  of  hard 
fighting  and  terrible  suffering  in  the  Wilderness,  Gen. 
Grant  summoned  his  officers  to  receive  orders  for  the 
morrow,  and  all  were  thinking  by  what  route  they  should 
retreat,  they  were  astounded  to  receive  the  order:  "Ad- 
vance all  along  the  line  by  break  of  day  to-morrow  morn- 
ing!" When  Gen.  Lee  heard  of  it  he  is  said  to  have 
exclaimed:  "The  Federal  army  has  at  last  found  a 
general." 

Smaller  matters  can  illustrate  great  principles.  When 
Philo  Carpenter  and  his  little  band  met  a  presbytery  to 
whom  ecclesiastically  they  were  amenable,  and  who, 
backed  by  all  the  authority  of  the  great  general  assem- 
bly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  declared  them  "disqualified  to  act  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  no  longer  to  be 
recognized  as  such,"  and  his  friends  were  wondering  how 
they  should  avert  or  survive  the  terrible  blow,  they  must 
have  been  astounded  when  he  arose  and  calmly  an- 
nounced: "Divine  service  will  beheld  in  the  session-room 
next  Sunday  at  the  usual  hour."  It  might  well  have 
been  said  at  that  moment,  "This  little  band  has  a  great 
leader."  For  that  simple  notice  was  stronger  than  the 
whole  general  assembly. 

7.  Yet  withal  he  was  a  man  of  peace.  Radically  as  he 
differed  from  men,  and  earnestly  as  he  sought  reforms,  he 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  2/ 

had  no  personal  quarrels.  The  entire  absence  of  litiga- 
tion during  his  long  life  is  proof  of  his  pacific  disposition. 
He  never  sued  a  man,  and  he  was  never  sued  but  twice  in 
his  life.  One  of  them  was  about  a  dog,  and  the  plaintiff 
was  non-suited. 

Musicians  tell  us  that  there  must  always  be  some  dis- 
cords in  their  anthems  to  make  the  music  effective,  and  in 
theory  I  am  greatly  opposed  to  indiscriminate  commenda- 
tion of  even  the  best  men;  and  I  frankly  confess  to  you 
that  I  have  sought  for  the  needed  discords  in  this  anthem, 
but  with  less  success  than  usual. 

Sometimes,  indeed,  Mr.  Carpenter  was  supposed  to  be 
deficient  in  business  enterprise — especially  that  he  did  not 
improve  more  of  his  property,  and  provide  himself  with  a 
greater  income.  But  listen  a  moment  to  his  own  explana- 
tion: "I  can't  get  money  enough  ahead,  besides  paying 
my  taxes  and  assessments,  to  erect  many  buildings,  for  as 
soon  as  anything  comes  in,  somebody  wants  it  for  a 
church,  for  a  college,  or  for  a  seminary;  or  some  friend 
gets  into  trouble  and  wants  help  in  meeting  a  note,  or 
releasing  a  farm  from  mortgage;  or  there  comes  some 
special  appeal  for  our  benevolent  societies  who  are  in 
straits,  and  the  money  seems  imperatively  needed  else- 
where." In  the  later  years  of  his  life  he  made  more 
improvements,  but  still  left  much  unimproved  property. 

Philo  Carpenter  was  sometimes  called  "a  man  of  one 
idea,"  but  the  record  we  have  rehearsed  shows,  we  think, 
several  ideas — as  many,  indeed,  as  most  men  have,  and  all 
good  ones.  They  might  perhaps  all  be  reduced  to  the 
"one  idea" — that  grand  one  of  loyalty  to  the  right,  loy- 
alty to  God  and  humanity.  Oh!  that  we  had  many  more 
such  men  with  "one  idea."  He  was  sometimes  called  "an 
extreme  man."  If  that  means  that  he  was  in  the  front 
rank  of  progress,  at  the  head  of  God's  marching  columns, 
we  accept  it  as  true,  and  no  reproach,  but  a  great  honor. 


28  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

Without  such  men  how  could  there  be  any  advance  in  the 
church  or  the  world?  Events  have  proved  that  he  was 
only  ahead  of  his  generation.  Almost  every  one  of  his 
positions,  once  thought  extreme,  have  been  reached  and 
occupied  by  his  brethren  and  his  fellow-citizens. 

But  the  good  man  was  very  far  from  thinking  himself 
perfect,  and  he  would  be  the  first  to  frown  upon  us  if  we 
should  presume  to  represent  him  as  without  fault.  We 
will  only  quote  the  closing  sentence  of  the  minute  adopted 
by  the  First  Congregational  Church  soon  after  his  decease: 
"Without  claiming  perfection  for  our  brother,  we  would 
rejoice  in  the  .invaluable  legacy  to  this  church  of  his  faith 
and  life,  and  praise  our  God  that  by  His  grace,  No.  i  on 
our  rolls,  went  in  and  out  before  a  great  and  wicked  city 
for  half  a  century  and  left  a  record  unstained." 

Deacon  Carpenter  was  a  man  of  commanding  presence, 
in  stature  about  six  feet  high;  not  being  corpulent  and 
continuing  erect  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  seemed  even 
taller.  His  normal  weight -was  about  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  pounds.  He  had  a  light  complexion,  dark- 
brown  hair,  a  mild  blue  eye,  a  countenance  singularly 
benignant,  pure,  and  inspiring  confidence.  No  one  could 
see  him  and  not  trust  him.  As  he  never  drank  intoxi- 
cants, nor  used  narcotics,  there  were  no  blotches  to  mar 
his  face,  which  grew  more  serene  and  heavenly  to  the  last. 

The  afflictions  which  deprived  him  of  his  wife,  and  re- 
duced his  seven  children  to  two,  and  brought  severe  ill- 
ness upon  him,  diminished  his  strength  and  made  him  in 
his  last  years  somewhat  averse  to  society.  He  did  not 
appear  much  in  public,  but  as  long  as  enough  strength 
remained  he  attended  public  worship  and  retained  to  the 
last  his  interest  in  "the  dear  old  First  Church,"  as  he  lov- 
ingly called  it.  An  affection  which  the  church  recipro- 
cated, as  we  have  said  by  making  him  Deacon  Emeritus. 

The  Chicago  Congregational  Club,  the  first  year  of  its 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  29 

existence,  1883,  elected  him  an  honorary  member,  "in 
recognition,"  as  they  said,  "of  his  more  than  fifty  years  of 
residence  in  this  city,  of  his  leadership  in  its  early  relig- 
ious enterprises,  of  his  faithfulness  to  the  cause  of  freedom 
when  it  cost  greatly  to  be  faithful,  and  especially  in  grate- 
ful recognition  not  only  of  his  being  the  first  member  of 
our  First  Church,  but  of  his  being  the  father  of  Congre- 
gationalism in  this  city."* 

On  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  arrival  in  Chicago, 
July  18,  1882,  a  large  number  of  our  citizens  called  at  his 
residence  to  do  him  honor.  His  death,  August  7,  1886, 
resulted  from  a  severe  cold  taken  some  time  previously, 
terminating  in  congestion  of  the  lungs.  His  body  was 
embalmed  and  the  funeral  was  postponed  till  August  15, 
awaiting  the  arrival  from  California  of  his  daughter,  Mrs. 
Rev.  Edward  Hildreth. 

In  the  absence  of  Rev.  Dr.  Goodwin,  the  pastor,  the 
funeral  was  conducted  by  Rev.  Dr.  Franklin  W.  Fisk  of  the 
Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  assisted  byRev.Drs.  Flavel 
Bascom,  and  Joseph  E.  Roy,  and  Rev.  H.  L.  Hammond. 
The  deacons  of  the  church  were  pall-bearers,  with  E.  W. 
Blatchford,  Carlisle  Mason,  Judge  Wm.  W.  Farwell,  Dr. 
John  H.  HoUister,  and  Professors  Hugh  M.  Scott  and  Jas. 
R.  Dewey,  honorary  pall-bearers.  A  very  large  congre- 
gation was  in  attendance,  including  especially  the  old  resi- 
dents of  Chicago.  The  services  were  short,  as  a  further 
memorial  service  was  anticipated  after  the  return  of  the 

*  "The  Chicago  Congregational  Club,  March  21,  1883. 

Dea.  Philo  Carpenter,  Dea?-  Sir: — At  the  meeting  of  the  Club  last  even- 
ing, at  the  suggestion  of  the  executive  committee,  the  following  was  adopted : 

Resolved.  That  in  recognition  of  his  more  than  fifty  years  of  residence  in 
this  city,  of  his  leadership  in  its  early  religious  enterprises,  of  his  faithfulness 
to  the  cause  of  freedom — when  it  cost  greatly  to  be  faithful,  and  especially  in 
grateful  recognition  not  only  of  his  being  the  first  member  of  our  First 
Church  but  of  his  being  the  father  of  Congregationalism  in  this  city  we  do 
hereby  elect  Dea.  Philo  Carpenter  an  honorary  member  of  this  Club. 

J.  W.  Sykes,  Secretary.  C.  G.   Hammond,  President. 


30  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

pastor.  They  included,  however,  the  reading  of  a  very 
cordial  appreciative  letter  from  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church,*  of  which  Mr.  Carpenter,  as  already  told,  was 
one  of  the  founders  and  first  elders,  and  the  singing  of  a 
touching  hymn  that  had  been  a  favorite  of  Mr.  Carpenter^ 
of  which  a  manuscript  copy  was  found  in  his  memoran- 
dum book  after  his  death  : 

"This  is  not  my  place  of  resting, 
Mine's  a  city  yet  to  come; 
Onward  to  it  I  am  hasting, 
On  to  my  eternal  home. 

]n  it  all  is  light  and  glory, 

O'er  it  shines  a  nightless  day, 
Every  trace  of  sin's  sad  story. 

All  the  curse  hath  passed  away. 

There  the  Lamb  our  Shepherd  leads  us 

By  the  stream  of  life  along. 
On  the  freshest  pastures  feeds  us, 

Turns  our  sighing  into  song. 

Soon  we  pass  this  desert  dreary, 

Soon  we  bid  farewell  to  pain. 
Never  more  are  sad  or  weary, 

Never,  never,  sin  again." 

*  "At  our  meeting  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  last  evening,  notice  of 
Deacon  Carpenter's  funeral  was  given.  Eulogies  were  given  of  his  grand 
and  noble  life,  his  spotless  character  as  a  Christian  gentleman,  and  his  great 
benovelence  and  usefulness  as  a  citizen,  through  all  the  trying  periods  of  our 
city's  history  were  acknowledged  by  all. 

It  gives  us  great  pleasure  as  a  church  to  send  a  committee  to  represent  us 
at  his  funeral,  and  to  extend  to  his  family  and  his  friends  our  sympathy  and 
condolence.  The  following  gentlemen  were  appointed  on  the  committee : 
O.  D.  Ranney,  James  Hollingsworth,  B.  Chamberlain,  H.  M.  Sherwood, 
H.  W.  Dudley,  and  D.  W.  Irwin. 

The  writer  has  known  Deacon  Carpenter  more  than  thirty  years,  and  were 
I  to  select  an  exemplary  man,  one  whose  life  and  character  I  could  point  to 
with  pride,  that  life  would  be  that  of  our  dear  brother  Philo  Carpenter. " 
Chicago,  Aug.  ii,  1886.  D.  W.  Irwin. 


MEMORIAL   SKETCH.  3  I 

The  appointed  memorial  service  was  held  by  the  pastor 
after  his  return,  early  in  September.  Text,  Prov.  V.,  7, 
"The  memory  of  the  just  is  blessed."  His  sermon  on 
that  occasion  was  extensively  reported  in  the  papers. 

The  mortal  remains  of  this  pioneer,*  Sunday-school 
superintendent,  church  founder,  deacon,  abolitionist, 
reformer,  philanthropist,  and  Christian  brother,  sleep  in 
Graceland,  but  his  spirit,  who  can  doubt,  is  with  the  blessed 
on  high. 

Among  the  bequests  of  Deacon  Carpenter-f*  was  one  of 

*  Resolutions  of  Sunday-school  Teachers  at  Farwell  Hall,  Chicago,  Aug. 
8,  1886: — tV/iereas,  The  officers  and  teachers  of  the  Saturday  noon-meeting, 
held  in  Farwell  Hall,  have  heard  of  the  death  of  Deacon  Philo  Carpenter,  at 
the  ripe  age  of  82  years,  therefore. 

Resolved,  That  we  place  on  record  our  appreciation  of  his  zeal  and  faithful- 
ness "in  organizing  the  first  Sunday-school  in  our  city  in  the  fall  of  1832,  of 
which  he  was  the  first  superintendent. 

Resolved,  That  we  commend  the  example  of  his  Christian  activity  and  large 
benevolence  through  a  long  life  as  worthy  of  imitation  by  the  young  men  of 
our  city. 

Resolved,  That  we  extend  our  sympathies  to  his  bereaved  family  who  have  a 
priceless  heritage  in  the  memory  of  his  faith  in  and  loyalty  to  Christ. " 

+  "His  estate  was  valued  at,  personalities  $100,000;  real  estate  from  $400,- 
000  to  $500,000.  The  picrsonal  estate  is  to  be  divided  between  his  two 
daughters  and  the  children  of  a  third;  the  real  estate  is  to  be  divided  into 
four  equal  parts,  three  of  which  are  to  be  given  to  the  heirs,  and  the  fourth, 
after  taking  out  some  legacies,  among  which  are  $500  each  to  his  old  friends, 
Revs.  Jeremiah  Porter  and  Plavel  Bascom,  D.  D.,  is  to  be  devoted  to  religious 
and  educational  work  as  follows:  to  Oberlin  College,  $2000;  Ripon  College, 
$2000;  Iowa  College,  $2000;  Berea  College,  Ky.,  $5000;  Chicago  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  $2000;  the  library  of  the  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  $1000; 
New-West  Education  Commission,  $2000;  Chicago  Historical  Society,  $1000; 
Chicago  City  Missionary  Soc'y,  $2000;  American  Congregational  Union,  $2000; 
Illinois  Home  Missionary  Society  $1000;  Camp-Nelson  Academy,  Ky. ,  $250; 
Rev.  Joseph  E.  Roy,  in  trust  in  opposition  to  secret  societies,  $2000;  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  $2000;  American  Missionary  Association,  $1000; 
American  Home  Missionary  Society,  $1000;  American  Christian  Union,  $1000; 
to  his  daughters  to  be  used  in  opposition  to  secret  societies,  $4000;  Chicago 
Theological  Seminary,  to  endow  an  alcove  in  Hammond  Libraiy,  $5000;  and 
the  balance  to  the  Chicago  Theological  Seminary. " 


32  PHILO   CARPENTER. 

$1000  to  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  which  has  been 
already  paid  over  to  the  treasurer.  The  daughters,  Mrs. 
Wm.  W.  Cheney  of  Chicago,  and  Mrs.  Rev.  Edward  Hild- 
reth  of  Los  Angeles,  California,  now  have  the  pleasure  of 
personally  presenting  a  bronze  bust  of  their  father.  The 
cast  for  this  bust  was  taken  after  his  death  by  Lorado 
Taft  of  this  city.  From  it  one  of  marble,  made  in  Paris, 
has  been  already  presented  to  the  Chicago  Theological 
Seminary.  This  of  bronze  was  cast  by  the  American 
Bronze  Company  of  Grand  Crossing,  Hyde  Park,  and  is 
certainly  a  creditable  work  of  art  that  will  be  recognized 
at  once  by  all  who  ever  knew  Deacon  Carpenter.  If  any 
miss  the  benignity  of  his  expression  and  the  kindness  of 
his  mild  blue  eyes,  the  difficulty  of  reproducing  these 
things  in  bronze  must  be  remembered.  A  photograph  of 
the  old  Carpenter  homestead  will  also  be  an  object  of 
interest  now  and  hereafter. 


